PHILADELPHIA — The problem now is do you compare Ubaldo Jimenez to Roy Halladay or Halladay to Jimenez?

Jimenez leads baseball with 15 wins. Halladay leads the league with seven complete games. Halladay is as consistent as Boulder’s atomic clock, and as dominant as any Broad Street bully. The former Arvada West star made quick work of the Rockies in the Phillies’ 6-0 shutout win Friday.

“He mixes in a sinker, cutter, curve, and none of them are over the middle of the plate,” Rockies outfielder Seth Smith said.

As is his custom, Halladay worked deep into the game. In his last three home starts, he has allowed one run in 26 innings. Only the Phillies’ lead kept him from walking out for the ninth. Jimenez, who gets the ball today in what has become a critical game on this clumsy road trip, was baseball’s best pitcher for the first two months.

On a muggy, 92-degree night at soldout Citizens Bank Park, there was no question who had the game’s top arm.

Halladay toyed with the Rockies like a cat pawing at yarn. There were no loose threads. He allowed five hits, and only one Rockie reached third base.

“I didn’t pitch exactly where I wanted,” said Halladay who is 11-8 with a 2.28 ERA, “but I think I did a good job of keeping them off-balance.”

Watching the Rockies over the past week, it’s hard believe they are a playoff team. They look out of sorts, in large part, because they haven’t hit. They are batting .191 on the trip (50-for-262), and have scored two runs or fewer five times.

“It just seems like we have never had three or four guys hot at the same time,” Ian Stewart said.

The Rockies seem to be playing themselves out of contention. The fans’ understandable frustration, however, doesn’t reconcile with the standings. As poorly as the Rockies have performed in this three-city meltdown — their starters own a 4.79 ERA after Aaron Cook was pummeled for five runs — they remain within arm’s reach of the wild card.

They sat two games behind the Giants, pending the outcome of their late game against Arizona. The reality is that Troy Tulowitzki’s absence looms larger every day. The Rockies are 17-13 without him. He is expected back Tuesday, but even his presence won’t matter if Brad Hawpe — he has two home runs since April 21 — or a mystery player starts hitting for power.

Cook wiggled out of trouble in the first and second thanks to terrific defensive plays by Smith and Jason Giambi. But the Phillies torched him in the fifth, Raul Ibañez’s two-run double and Ross Gload’s two-run home run the crucial blows. Gload is 7-for-9 against Cook, who fell to 1-6 on the road.

“It’s disappointing. They put some good swings on the ball,” Cook said. “And I left some pitches up.”

There are three games remaining in Philadelphia. There’s time to turn off the hazards, the Rockies insist, time to return to Denver with something besides a leaky transmission and tire tracks on their chests from getting running over by some of the game’s best pitchers.

“We can salvage this,” manager Jim Tracy said. “That’s how we have to look at it.”

Looking ahead

TODAY: Rockies at Phillies, 2:10 p.m., KDVR-31

Ubaldo Jimenez (15-1, 2.38 ERA) has not been dominant for four weeks, dealing with mechanical problems and pitch selection issues. Against the Marlins, Jimenez foolishly threw a changeup to Mike Stanton, the result a home run that cost him a victory. Jimenez has lost only one road start this season but has allowed at least four earned runs in five of his last six starts. Kyle Kendrick (5-4, 4.82) returns from Triple-A because of Jamie Moyer’s potential career- ending injury. Kendrick has been torched for nine home runs in 42 innings at home, and Seth Smith (6-for-7) gives him fits.

Troy is a former Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies beat writer for The Denver Post. He joined the news organization in 2002 as the Rockies' beat writer and became a Broncos beat writer in 2014 before assuming the lead role ahead of the 2015 season. He left The Post in 2015.

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